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Thailand’s government is poised to push beleaguered THAI into bankruptcy protection in a move that would mark one of the world’s first failures of a national flag carrier since the outbreak of Covid-19.  The cabinet of PM Prayuth Chan-ocha will Tuesday be asked to consider a proposal from the transport ministry for a rehabilitation plan that would result in the restructuring of the lossmaking state-owned carrier after a bankruptcy filing in court, two senior government officials said.  “Today there was a meeting of the State Enterprise Policy Committee, which approved the transport ministry’s proposal to submit the rehabilitation plan to cabinet tomorrow,” said Thaworn Senniam, deputy minister of transport.  The move comes after years of widening losses at the airline, and a rift inside the government, where some ministers had favoured rescuing the airline with a bailout loan worth Bt54b (US$1.7b).  “People don’t want to inject more money without getting a foolproof return in terms of reorganisation,” said a second government official.  The two government officials said they expected the cabinet to approve the proposal, but added that the decision on whether to proceed would be confirmed only on Tuesday.  Thai Airways was already in deep trouble before the pandemic because of its failure to keep up with competitors’ fleet and service offerings, its decision to operate flights on unprofitable routes and the appreciating baht. <br/>

THAI’s union has pledged to “oppose to the end” a possible reduction of the Finance Ministry’s stake in the national carrier that would end its state-enterprise status. Nares Puengyam, president of the union, on Monday issued a statement on the union’s position regarding the restructuring plan. According to the statement, THAI employees agreed with the proposal by the Transport Ministry on debt restructuring under the supervision of the central bankruptcy court. “We are confident the company can be rehabilitated under this proposal. The plan would benefit the company, which will be back in business with improved competitiveness,” read the statement. But the group disagreed with the ministry’s proposal for the Finance Ministry to reduce its stake in the airline by 2%, citing two reasons. First, as the company will be restructured under the supervision of the court, the downsizing of the stake by the Finance Ministry could lead to creditors opposing the restructuring and using the bankruptcy law as a tool. Second, the union continued, the stake reduction beyond 50% of all shares would automatically dissolve the union, leaving employees unprotected at this critical time when staff numbers would be cut and their benefits trimmed.<br/>

Aegean Airlines expects 2020 to be the worst year in its 21-year history as restrictions imposed to contain the new coronavirus pandemic have hit revenues and grounded planes, its chairman said Monday. Aegean suspended international flights on March 26 but will restart flights to some European destinations by the end of May. "The fact that the third quarter will be loss-making ... means that 2020 will be the worst year in our history," board chairman Eftychios Vassilakis told investors in a conference call. Airlines around the world have cut flights as civil aviation authorities imposed restrictions and countries closed borders to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Aegean, which flew a record 15m passengers last year, expects to increase operations to around 50% by September from 25% in July, under a best-case scenario, its chairman said. Revenue in Q1, which started strong but suffered from a "disastrous" March will be down 15% to around 145m, leading to a pretax loss of about E80m. Vassilakis said that increasing operations to about 75% to 80% could be possible next year and if achieved, would be a high enough level of activity to allow Aegean to compete in Europe. In common with many other airlines, he said Aegean would slow the pace of taking deliveries of new aircraft in the next years.<br/>

Chairman of EgyptAir Holding Mohamed Roshdi Zakaria announced a 10% pay cut for board chairs and deputies, sector heads, air crew members, maintenance engineers, and others. Also, administrative and operating costs will be reduced. The EgyptAir Holding chairman said that the company had gone through many crises that could demise its history and future but their impact was not as that of COVID-19 pandemic. The state has granted the company a bailout worth LE2 billion that is supposed to support the airline until the size of its operating rates records 80% of the operating rates in 2019. Minister of Civil Aviation Mohamed Manar issued a decree Sunday granting all workers at the ministry and affiliate companies a bonus worth LE2,000 thanking them for abiding by protective rules against COVID-19.<br/>

Ethiopian Airlines expects a settlement with Boeing by end of June over compensation related to the 737 MAX grounding in March 2019 following two fatal crashes, CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said Friday. Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 bound for Kenya crashed six minutes after take-off from Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, killing all 157 passengers and crew. It was the second deadly crash of a 737 MAX in less than six months and led to the worldwide grounding of Boeing’s top-selling aircraft. “We have invited Boeing to discuss compensation. It’s compensation for the grounded MAX ... there is also compensation for delayed delivery of the MAX that was supposed to come and loss of revenue,” Tewolde said, adding that it expects compensation by the end of June when its fiscal year closes. Boeing said that it does not comment on its arrangements with particular customers but will continue to work closely with Ethiopian Airlines and others “to reach a fair and reasonable outcome.” Ethiopian has decided not to pursue a lawsuit against Boeing over the 737 MAX crash as it remains a “partner” and Ethiopian uses many of its planes, he said, adding the settlement could be in form of cash or supplies of plane parts. He did not say how much compensation the airline, with four MAX planes in its fleet, was seeking or how many planes it has on order.<br/>

United is giving out face masks as part of a new amenity kit for passengers in the age of Covid-19. “Starting today, we are providing a little amenity kit,” United CEO Oscar Munoz said Monday. “It will be a little amenity kit that has a snack, a water and some hand wipes for you as you enter the aircraft, along with a mask if you need it.” The package is branded as “United Clean Plus,” said Munoz, who will become executive chairman after handing the CEO job to United President Scott Kirby this week. United started requiring passengers to use face coverings earlier this month, joining a rush by most US carriers. United has no reading on when air travel demand will return and won’t schedule additional capacity until then, Munoz said. Also, the company isn’t inclined to take new aircraft given the dire operating environment.<br/>

Kiwis looking to get away Queens Birthday will have more options with flights boosted to visitor-starved Queenstown. Air New Zealand will resume its Wellington-Queenstown flights on May 28 and will also add additional flights between Auckland and Queenstown. It will also start re-opening its lounges from the beginning of next week with the airline's chief revenue officer Cam Wallace tweeting that this would start in Wellington. It has been steadily adding capacity since the country moved to level 2 last week and is moving towards serving all its 20 centre domestic network, although at much reduced frequency.<br/>

Swiss plans to modify a fourth Boeing 777 for cargo-only flights as the Lufthansa subsidiary grows its intercontinental freight network. Under a new schedule effective since 15 May, Hong Kong, New York JFK and Mumbai have become new destinations served with multiple weekly frequencies, Swiss says. Previously, it operated cargo flights to Beijing, Chicago, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo and – since 12 May – Toronto. Chinese city Shenzhen is to be served from 22 May with 10 cargo flights, Swiss says. Its leisure sibling Edelweiss is operating weekly cargo flights to Johannesburg under the current schedule. Swiss says it will carry freight on the route from June, when the carrier plans to resume passenger flights to Johannesburg. The South African city is one of several intercontinental destinations that Swiss intends to resume serving with passenger aircraft from next month – others being Bangkok, Hong Kong, Mumbai, New York JFK, Newark, Singapore and Tokyo. In April, Swiss disclosed a plan to remove economy seats on three of its 777-300ERs to increase freight capacity. Now, preparations are under way for a fourth aircraft to adapted, Swiss says, noting that it operates all its cargo-only flights with 777s. Before the coronavirus crisis, the carrier’s cargo operation was limited to carrying belly-freight.<br/>